Rx Cos. and the Medical Journals

With the FDA considering a proposal to give drug company salespersons the right to distribute journal articles touting the off-label use of prescription drugs, I was motivated this week to reread this small masterpiece by Richard Smith, the former editor of the British Medical Journal. It's title: "Medical Journals Are an Extension of the Marketing Arm of Pharmaceutical Companies."

But don't take the word of a former medical editor. Industry has long seen their approach to science as an extension of their marketing apparatus, and the latest confirmation of that comes from a new survey done by an industry consulting firm. According to Best Practices LLC, most of the country’s leading pharmaceutical companies see publishing clinical trials results as a marketing tool as well as a method of disseminating scientific information.

The report, “Scientific Publications Strategy: Managing Reputation, Clinical Trial Results, and Commercial Relevance,” surveyed scientific directors at 14 leading pharmaceutical companies including GlaxoSmithKline, Pfizer, Bristol-Myers Squibb, Abbott Laboratories, Amgen, Merck, Genentech and Eli Lilly. Eight of the firms included regional or national marketing managers on teams planning their publications strategy. “Scientific publications are an essential tool for both clinical and commercial purposes, as they are intended to influence the target audience by raising both awareness of the disease and awareness of a company’s product,” the report stated.

Portions of this story first appeared in Integrity in Science Watch, published online by the Center for Science in the Public Interest.